Lawrence Kohlberg's stages of moral development

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Lawrence Kohlberg's theory about the stages of moral development is an adaptation of a psychological theory originally conceived by the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget. Kohlberg began his work on this subject as a psychology graduate student at the University of Chicago in 1958, and expanded upon the theory throughout his life. The theory holds that moral reasoning, a necessary (but not sufficient) condition for ethical behavior, has six developmental stages, each more adequate at responding to moral dilemmas than its predecessor. Kohlberg followed the development of moral judgment far beyond the ages studied earlier by Piaget, who also claimed that logic and morality develop through constructive stages. Expanding on Piaget's work, Kohlberg determined that the process of moral development was principally concerned with justice and that it continued throughout the individual's life, a notion that led to dialogue on the philosophical implications of such research. The six stages of moral...

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